The tactile perception of hair by consumer and hair disentangling ability are key parameters that help the consumer’s choice of shampoos and conditioners. Behind this sensorial perception, different tribological mechanisms are involved. In particular the geometry of the tribosystem (sliding object vs hair or hair vs hair) is important to determine which geometry is best to obtain the most relevant friction parameters to correlate either with tactile or disentangling capacity. Polyethylene-glycol (PEG) grafted copolymers are known having the ability of self-assembling in aqueous environment to form polymer brushes on model surfaces that exhibit excellent lubrication characteristics. Thus, they are interesting models to explore their effect on the different tribological configurations previously mentioned. We combined a technique for hair-hair friction, pin-on disk tribometry and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to study the frictional behaviour of the homopolymer polylysine, poly (lysine-g-PEG) and poly(allylamine-g-PEG) in both aqueous and dry environments. Results in terms of friction force or friction coefficient and friction distribution show that a well structured polymer such as PLL-g-PEG exhibits by itself lubrication levels of a standard conditioner product. In addition these results correlate well with sensorial data irrespective of the different geometries used. A critical discussion will be developed based upon the particular geometry and orientation of the fibres.

Influence of biomimetic brush nanostructures on the tribology of natural fiber bio-interfaces

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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